


i once was blind

by glass_icarus



Category: Wild Adapter
Genre: Chromatic Character, Chromatic Source, Chromatic Source Creator, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-11
Updated: 2008-10-11
Packaged: 2017-10-14 08:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glass_icarus/pseuds/glass_icarus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kubota's just passing through life- until he isn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i once was blind

He watches his mother before the mirror, carefully painting her face with colors bright as butterflies, anticipating his father's return from work. He can see his face reflected in one corner of it, black and white, next to the little glass bottles of cosmetics. Makoto opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, the doorbell rings; she runs past him to answer it as if he is invisible. _Zero._

When he decides he's old enough, Kubota moves out of his mother's house.

School is a different kind of monotony, a complicated calendar of essays and exams that he hands in like clockwork, passing- acing, for the most part- everything without effort. The other students are- not quite _boring_ , Kubota thinks, but simply _not-interesting_ , so he puts on a smiling mask for the teachers and doesn't bother to cultivate friendships. Soon, he is invisible there, too.

He finds a stray cat. It's scrawny, underfed, so he leaves some food out- table scraps, leftovers from each week's cooking: there's too much curry for just one person.

The cat comes by pretty regularly, until it doesn't. Kubota waits for a week, but it doesn't reappear. One day, he walks by the park and sees a scrap of fur, a four-legged carcass infested with flies. He beats them away with a stick, buries the cat, and walks away with dry eyes. He doesn't know what to do with a cat, anyway.

He follows his uncle to a pool hall one day and discovers a world of shadows, not quite like him, but close enough. So he plays, and wins; gets invited to a series of "friendly" games of mahjong, and wins those too. Eventually, he meets Sanada-san, whom his uncle has warned him about. Sanada-san smokes Ark Royals and chews Lotte's vanilla gum and looks at him with something like _hunger_ , Kubota notes. None of these things are particularly pleasing, in combination or otherwise, but Izumo's just a new game, right? He's confident he'll win.

Until the day Komiya dies, he never loses a round. Kubota decides he's lost his taste for the game after that.

Some time after he walks away, he discovers another cat in an alley. He doesn't understand why he decides to take it home, but he's always liked cats anyway.

Besides, this one looks stronger than the last. It'll definitely survive.

The cat is certainly strong, but he hadn't anticipated that it would be so demanding. He cooks for two these days (usually curry, unless his cat decides he wants something else), goes out at random hours of the early morning to buy snacks and candy and video games, has to replace his game controllers because they keep getting smashed. He sleeps on the couch until his cat complains, the feeling of a second body beneath his sheets something he'd never known to want until he had it. He takes the cat on walks- to the park, to the arcade, to movie theaters and amusement parks and his uncle's house- and watches as everything old becomes new again.

He doesn't know what to do with a cat, but it doesn't leave, and doesn't leave, and doesn't leave. One day, Kubota wakes up to a familiar weight in his bed ("Kubo-chan, it's _too early_ ," his cat groans). He looks down into sleepy eyes, looking right back at him, and sees: _two, one,_ infinite.


End file.
